Thursday, March 1, 2012

On Wednesday I knew what was round the corner, it was traffic lights that I had to stop for or allowing me me to roll though on the green. But that soon changed and as I went flying through the air and came crashing down on my butt! Yep I got hit from behind by a car and I’m pleased I came out with not too much damage to me or the bike, a small mistake from a driver generally is a big mess for a person on a bike. I was a little annoyed but as a cyclist I do expect an accident at some point whether commuting or while I’m racing. Theres going to be a quite a few corners coming up this year and I’m certain there will be a couple of beauties! And the butt....like a grater scraped off everything, it’s going to be one big scab!

My racing has been a little patchy since late last year, the 2nd half of 2011 was pretty big for me and by November I was feeling a little bit tired mentally and physically, I needed a rest and time to have a holiday with Bex in Nelson which was really enjoyable and definitely cleared out the head. Best of all we rode a few trails on the mountain bikes which were amazing and we’ll be back there for sure, I couldn’t get enough of them!

I’m known for needing bit of a kick up the butt! I’m generally really keen to rip into a race but sometimes I will completely get out of focus until the gun goes off then a little switch will flick in my brain..then its all on! That’s the feeling I have right now. The switch can be flicked quite easily just by having a small chat to the right person or having a look at past results or old photos I have stashed away. Bex is pretty good at telling me when to pull my head in and to get out there and get on with it, Bex wisely passed on her knowledge to my team manager and good bugger James Canny to give me a razz up every now and then and it pretty much works straight away.

My race calander is looking pretty busy up till the Club Nationals in May then will calm down over dirty winter. As a team we have some pretty big goals this year and I reckon we have some grunt to do some good things and build on what we did last year, the 2nd half of 2011 was really strong and people started watching what we were doing. We have really supportive sponsors and young Canny is super motivated to get the guys ripping some races to pieces.

A few weeks ago I turned up and raced the 3rd round of the NZ Cup MTB Series here in Wellington at the great venue of Mt Vic, I last did the National series 2 years ago and was fortunate enough to come away with the series win. This year though was more to compete in my “home” town and against the best mountain riders in NZ. The sport right now is probably the best as its ever been and with the Olympics not far away, we have some brilliant talent fighting to be on the line. I was pretty happy with my 5th placing behind the top 4 guys in NZ and my race day prep certainly wasn’t textboo. I turned up 50mins before the race after having spent the morning up in Te Horo, doing a road race I thought I would hammer. After pulling out after lap one as my legs were real slow I had pulled the pin on the afternoons racing at Mt Vic. I had a bit of a sleep in the car on the way home from Te Horo, a good feast of bakery food and was happy to roll up and watch the mtb race in the arvo. After a few ‘gentle nudges’ from Bex (read....get yourself here and on your bike pussy!)....Nek Minnut I’m sprinting up the road racing on my mountain bike. I really enjoyed being back on the line and I did get thoughts of maybe returning next year….in Masters!

I like the mountain bike scene theres no big egos and everyone is super friendly and wants to have a good ol yarn before and after the race, sometimes too much of a yarn then before you know it you are called up for the start!

With young superman Anton Cooper becoming a pro this year I think we will see our sport slowly progress and hopefully see more young talented riders reach their goal of also being a pro rider, Anton is great for our sport not just on the bike but also off the bike. I’m looking to forward to following his overseas results this year and I’m waiting for a big poster to come with him on it so I can get him to sign it for me!

About Me and My Bike...

I'm 32. I'm married to my lovely wife Bex, we have a beautiful wee girl, Casey who was born on 24th October 2012. We live in the mighty Wainuiomata.
I started racing bikes back in 1992, first on the Mountain Bike, then got into Road and Track cycling when I was 13. BMX and Downhill occupied me for a few seasons before some broken bones led me away from the big jumps and drops. Since 2003 Road and Mountain Bike have been my focus and this year I hit the Cyclocross bike for the first time after wanting to do it for the last few years, and now with time being precious with having wee Casey in our lives the short intense racing and training works for me perfectly. I still really enjoy the odd National Mtb race and the occasional local road event. Racing is in my blood and it will go away, the shorter and harder the event the more I thrieve which makes Cyclocross perfect.